Let's talk Christmas Day & navigating the Festive Season...

A day on our plate for Christmas or should I say plates as there will most definitely be more than one plate being eaten…

Monday

I am prepping our family Christmas ham on the Monday with my mango, maple & mustard ham glaze recipe on the website! It is delicious usually this can be a recipe made with copious amounts of sugar that are just really unnecessary. We also choose a chemical and nitrate free ham as I find this helps to not aggravate my gut and digestion.

Then it will be a turkey stuffing salad with the turkey stuffing recipe out of the Crap Free Christmas Book which is just divine and I add in some fried beans in coconut oil or sautéed broccoli in macadamia oil - it is honestly always the first dish to go... from the ages of my younger cousins to my grandparents everyone loves this dish.

We tend to create a number of salads for the day especially to accompany everyones dietary requirements. The broccoli and cranberry dill cashew cheese salad is always on the list of recipes as it is dairy free, gluten free and refined sugar free not to mention vegan. It is a great way of sneaking loads of nutrition into everyone without them knowing or complaining and if in doubt just lie about what is in there to get them to eat it haha!! I do.

I will also whip up a White Christmas Rocky Road from the recipe book to have on the dessert table for the following day. I tend to do mostly everything the day before so I just spend Christmas Day enjoying myself… don’t get me wrong I love cooking but I also love taking time out and what I can do on one day rather than two days is a yes from me haha.

Tuesday

A seafood platter with my seafood sauce from the recipe book and the avocado & mango salad to eat as a side. I find these two dishes are perfect to make the day of for freshness and are that easy I am in the kitchen with mum for 5 minutes while the boys are prepping the seafood… sounds like a good deal to me!

I tend to always make some sort of kombucha mojito or cocktail so I have something refreshing to drink if I choose not to drink alcohol and is a little fancier and funner than just water all day! Plus I can easily spike it with boozes which is never a bad idea at Christmas time. We have the best lychee mojito recipe in the book which is perfect when we are up in Cairns for Christmas day and it is like an infrared sauna.

Plus more desserts as we go but predominantly it is kind of paleo style with a focus on lots of fresh fruit, salads and good quality protein. I don’t label our Christmas any certain way of eating nor do all of the family eat the way I do… but yet every year they ask for my Christmas cake with brandy custard, my salads and sides as well as dips and kombucha mojitos because it all tastes just as good if not better and they don’t feel full and unwell on Christmas Day.

5 ways to navigate the Festive Season:

Take your own plate or two to parties, lunches or Christmas Day - so you know you will have something to eat whether it is dips or turkey meat balls or fritters or you own kombucha cocktail that doesn’t contain sh*t tins of sugar.

Prep what you are going to make ahead of time and have enough food, treats and snacks so you don’t just eat 37 chocolate Santas. Always is a good idea to have some ‘healthy’ rum balls in a bag in the freezer prepped for when you need something!

Don’t feel anxious or worried about gaining weight or what you are going to eat… being stressed about food will only make it worse and is most likely to do more damage than just eating some ice cream!

Stay hydrated, get enough sleep and take time out for you… the Festive Season is always busy and sometimes you just need to look after yourself and make sure you aren’t run off your feet! Whether that means going for a walk or having a bath.

Enjoy yourself! Get everyone involved in creating some recipes with you and bringing their own recipe ideas to the table. Have a drink or two if you want to it is Christmas after all… add rum to your rum balls don’t be an asshole to yourself… plus they aren’t rum balls if there is no rum no lie will fix that … sorry.